Sesame Workshop is addressing Elmo‘s hacked X account that shared “abhorrent” messages that have been antisemitic and racist.
“On Sunday, Elmo’s X account was briefly hacked by an out of doors celebration, regardless of the safety measures in place,” learn the assertion on X, the microblogging platform owned by Elon Musk and previously generally known as Twitter.
“We strongly condemn the abhorrent antisemitic and racist content material, and the account has since been secured,” the assertion continued. “These posts by no means mirror the values of Sesame Workshop or Sesame Avenue, and nobody on the group was concerned.”
Elmo’s X account normally shares healthful content material, asking customers how they’re and spreading love and kindness. Nonetheless, on Sunday, a string of messages have been posted surprising its greater than 650,000 followers. A few of the posts included linking Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted intercourse offender.
After Sesame Workshop regained management of the account, the posts have been promptly deleted. Earlier at present, a brand new submit from Elmo was shared expressing his gratitude following the grotesque incident.
“Thanks for being variety to Elmo and all of the folks in your neighborhood. Elmo loves you,” learn the submit.
The incident on X follows one other one during which X’s chatbot, Grok, was spitting out feedback that lauded Adolf Hitler. X later issued an apology and took the chatbot offline for a few days whereas it reprogrammed it.
On Monday evening’s episode of The Day by day Present, host Jon Stewart addressed Elmo’s hacked X account. Stewart devoted an entire bit with “Elmo” as an alt-right propagandist.
